Owner, director of New England Compounding Center has not commented

The Massachusetts couple who co-own the Framingham compounding pharmacy at the center of a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis that has claimed 34 lives has yet to make any public comment about the growing scandal.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, the number of those killed by tainted steroid injections made at the New England Compounding Center rose Monday to 34. Four hundred ninety people in 19 states have been sickened.

The same day, Team 5 Investigates Sean Kelly found NECC’s director, Lisa Conigliaro Cadden, leaving her home to shop. She spent two hours inside a jewelry store on Route 9, not far from where federal investigators raided NECC last month.

"Can we talk to you?" Kelly asked Cadden. She looked surprised and tucked away her purchases, driving off in her Mercedes SUV without making a comment.

On Tuesday, Kelly tried to ask Barry Cadden, NECC’s co-owner and pharmacist questions as he returned to the couple’s Wrentham home, where a ‘no trespassing’ sign has been placed in front.

"How are you doing? Can I ask you…" is all Kelly was able to say before Cadden sped away up the street to his home in a BMW, shouting behind a closed window.

Last week on Capitol Hill he invoked his Fifth Amendment right, declining to divulge any information when he was subpoenaed to appear before a House committee investigating what went wrong.

Court records show dozens of lawsuits have been filed around the country in connection with the fungal meningitis scandal since it was linked to steroid shots produced at NECC. Millions of steroid injections are administered every year in the U.S. as a treatment for severe back pain.

In a Boston federal court room Tuesday, lawyers asked a judge to freeze the Caddens' assets. The order was taken under advisement and a status hearing has been scheduled for next week.

Late Tuesday the Massachusetts Department of Public Health blasted the pharmacy, which DPH and others have accused of operating outside its scope.

Compounding pharmacies are licensed to produce small doses of specific medications for specific patients. Instead, state investigators have said NECC was operating more like a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.

"NECC is responsible for this devastation," said a spokesperson for DPH. "They did not abide by state and federal laws and it’s frustrating that Barry Cadden has declined to provide critical information to the public. We all want answers to the troubling questions that remain and we will join our federal and legislative partners in continuing to hold all responsible parties accountable."

A public relations firm that NECC retained shortly after the scandal broke told Team 5 Investigates Tuesday that NECC "voluntarily closed" and that the "only work underway is cooperating with state and federal authorities that are investigating the cause, and carrying out the recall of the products."

But when asked via email if "Barry & Lisa Cadden or any other official from NECC currently cooperating with federal authorities?" a spokesman told Team 5 "the Caddens will have no comment on this." They also declined to comment on the lawsuits.

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